Iraqi officers say the transfer is geared toward tightening the frontier with Iraq’s Kurdish area, the place Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a risk to its safety.
Iraq and Iran have signed a border safety settlement, a transfer Iraqi officers say is aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq’s Kurdish area, the place Tehran says Kurdish armed teams pose a risk to its safety.
Sunday’s joint safety settlement consists of coordination in “defending the widespread borders between the 2 international locations and consolidating cooperation in a number of safety fields”, an announcement from the Iraqi prime minister’s workplace stated.
Iran’s Supreme Nationwide Safety Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the cope with Iraq’s Nationwide Safety Adviser Qasim al-Araji, within the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister’s workplace stated.
“Below the signed safety deal, Iraq pledges it could not permit armed teams to make use of its territory within the Iraqi Kurdish area to launch any border-crossing assaults on neighbour Iran,” stated an Iraqi safety official who attended the signing, in response to the Reuters information company.
Shamkhani denounced “vicious actions by counter-revolutionary components” in northern Iraq, a reference to the Kurdish teams working within the nation, in response to Iran’s state information company IRNA.
He stated the settlement signed on Sunday “can utterly and basically finish the vicious actions of those teams”, which the Iranian authorities labels as “terrorists”.
Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish area hosts camps and rear bases operated by a number of Iranian Kurdish factions, which Iran has accused of serving Western or Israeli pursuits previously.
The frontier got here into renewed focus final 12 months when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone assaults in opposition to Iranian Kurdish teams based mostly in northern Iraq, accusing them of fomenting protests that had been sparked by the demise of an Iranian Kurdish girl whereas she was being held in police custody.
After the Iranian strikes, Iraq in November introduced it could redeploy federal guards on the border between Kurdish Iraq and Iran, slightly than leaving the duty to Kurdish Peshmerga forces – a transfer welcomed by Tehran.
Iranian International Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, talking in Tehran, stated “Shamkhani’s present journey to Iraq has been deliberate for 4 months and is concentrated on points associated to the armed teams in northern Iraq”.
Iran will by no means settle for threats from Iraqi territories, he stated.
Factions based mostly in Iraq’s mountainous north have previously waged an armed revolt in opposition to Tehran, however in recent times their actions have declined and consultants stated they’d ceased almost all army exercise.
Iran has additionally accused Kurdish fighters of working with its archenemy Israel, and has typically voiced concern over the alleged presence of the Israeli spy company Mossad within the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish area.
Final 12 months, Iran’s Intelligence Ministry stated a sabotage crew detained by its safety forces had been Kurdish fighters working for Israel who deliberate to explode a “delicate” defence trade centre within the metropolis of Isfahan.
